As one of the nation's largest providers of residential environmental education, the Georgia 4-H Environmental Education Program invites you & your students to join the safe haven of Georgia's outdoor classroom. Operating September through May of each year, our 4-H Centers provide opportunities throughout the state for high-quality day and residential educational experiences. Our research-based curriculum correlates to the Georgia Standards of Excellence, providing hands-on learning in the context of the real world. The Georgia 4-H Environmental Education Program is operated by the University of Georgia, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Cooperative Extension and is proud to serve as a partner in education with public, private, and homeschool groups across the Southeast.

As of June 2016, our program has served over 1,112,000 participants since its inception in 1979!

Georgia 4-H at Camp Jekyll - Update
Starting in July 2014, Georgia 4-H embarked on a new partnership with the Jekyll Island Authority that improved, rebuilt, and expanded the facilities that have served since 1983 as the Jekyll Island 4-H Center. Due to the constraints of the construction/renovations that spread across the entire campus, the Jekyll Island 4-H Center had to suspend our overnight Environmental Education and Summer Camping Programs on December 5th, 2014 and had to vacate the Jekyll 4-H campus effective January 2015 .

The new facility, Camp Jekyll, serves as the new home for Georgia 4-H programming on Jekyll Island. Georgia 4-H has now returned and is once again offering our same great environmental education field studies beginning February 2017. Reservations for the 2018-2019 school year can be made in August 2017 (date to be announced). Questions can be directed to Richard Chewning (richrich@uga.edu) or Lauren Kuschner (lnys@uga.edu).

One Millionth Celebration
During October 2013 we welcomed our ONE MILLIONTH participant in Georgia 4-H Environmental Education. Check out our One Million webpages to see how you can participate and learn more about
4-H Environmental Education.

Read what a few teachers have shared with us about the value of our EE Programs and how it related to the 3 R's of rigor, relevance, and relationships:

I see a correlation between some of the questions on the CRCT and some of the information that we’ve learned in the [Georgia 4-H EE] classes. Like I know 5th grade CRCT asks about barrier islands and so if the information is correlated with the state standards and a lot of that is showing up on the CRCT and that correlation is essential for me to validate bringing the students to participate in the programs.

We put them in different groups for their cabins, we put them in different groups for their daily activities. So they get to know everybody else, you know. And I just think they grow a lot as a grade, as a cohesive grade, they kind of have more bonding and they just can have a respect for each other in a different way. They shine in different ways and it comes out more here than it does in a traditional classroom.

Our children have different levels of experience in nature but when you come here, that can really help them be in touch with that part of the world. People don’t help preserve things they don’t care about so later on as adults if they develop some level of caring for the earth, not just from learning in a book or watching a video but being here, smelling it and hearing the birds, touching. That’s going to be a positive thing for the earth that they’ll care about it and also coming to learn a little bit about how things are connected. You know, they are connected with their friends, all these relationships, they get improved here. But also their connected to the earth.

Here [at a Georgia 4-H Center] we have so much more and we obviously talk about the environment throughout the year—it’s importance particularly when we are discussing science. That comes up ...in herpetology ..., obviously the [instructors] are so knowledgeable but really hitting on a lot of those specific terms as we do have GA standards and knowing those exact vocab things that they definitely wouldn’t have been exposed to. Just seeing this preserved and this is important. This is something they don’t have in their neighborhoods.

Georgia 4-H Environmental Education

Naturally gets students outside and connected with the environmentAligned with the current state curriculum standardsTaught by well-trained and college educated instructorsUses the outdoors as a classroom without wallsReaches students through physical & active classes up to 8 hrs per dayExcellence: a tradition since 1979

The University of Georgia and Ft. Valley State University, the U.S. Department
of Agriculture and counties of the state cooperating. The Cooperative Extension
Service offers educational programs, assistance and materials to all people
without regard to race, color, national origin, age, sex or disability.
An equal opportunity/affirmative action organization committed to a diverse
work force.